Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Attorney General stresses rape prevention

While we are certainly on board with reducing the number of rapes that occur, shouldn't any rational discussion on the subject also include talk about what isn't rape, and that if a woman files a false allegations, the repercussions will be serious?

Members of the Kappa Delta sorority were the primary attendants of the public presentation, sponsored by the Kansas Attorney General’s office, Kansas law enforcement, the K-State Women’s Center and Wildcats Against Rape to educate the public on sexual assault.

“We decided to come here as a sorority to learn how to be safer and just promote unity with in the sorority,” said Krista Bennett, junior in psychology and Spanish.

Kappa Delta attended the event instead of conducting their chapter meeting last night.

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six spoke about the current investigation on 13 serial rape cases in the Manhattan and Lawrence areas. Six also spoke at a similar event on the University of Kansas’s campus earlier Wednesday morning.

“What you can do is concentrate on personal safety,” Six said.

Wait a minute! Isn't this generally referred to as "victim blaming"? Women shouldn't have to take responsibility for NOT putting themselves in dangerous positions, innocent men alone need to step up and take responsibility for preventing rape, right?

Six said the Attorney General’s Office, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and other branches of Kansas law enforcement were seriously looking into these cases because of the similarities of the crimes in their investigations, which lead them to believe the cases are related.

“We are really concerned about these 13 attacks and I can tell you that law enforcement is working hard on these cases,” Six said.

But wait a minute! We constantly hear from the "rape industry" that law enforcement doesn't take rape seriously. Please, please, please don't tell me they weren't telling us the truth!

Six also said eight of these cases occurred in Manhattan; the other five were reported in Lawrence.

“My concern is we have students who are away from home, some of them for the first time, and we need to do all we can to educate them about their personal safety,” said Six.

My concern is that the parents didn't bother to address this, and that the state feels that they should step in to fill that role. Why not encourage parents to teach their kids not to get drunk with people they don't know, have no designated person who remains sober that can watch out for the others, or to acually obey the drinking age law we have in this country. Or is it too much to actually expect parents to parent?

Also presenting at the event were Mary Todd, director of the K-State Women’s Center, and Brian Swearinger of the Riley County Police Department.

Anyone from the K-State Men's Center present? What? There is no Men's Center?

Swearinger told the audience the best way to stay safe was to follow the acronym S.A.F.E.: Secure, Avoid, Flee, Engage.

Swearinger hit on topics of social networking safety, checking locks on doors and windows, reporting suspicious activities, drawing attention to oneself and ways to engage an assailant.

And yet not a single mention of the number 1 factor in these types of situations. Drinking. “If you are going to go for the groin, don’t just kick at it through it,” Swearinger said. “Try to kick it to the moon.”

Swearinger also said it is important for victims of any crime to report it to the proper authorities.“We won’t know that it’s happened unless they bring it to our attention,” he said.

This is what disproves the underreporting stats that everyone likes to trot out. If they won't know it happened if it isn't reported, and since their polling has proven to be so politicized that it is unreliable, then any stats on underreporting are pure guesswork, and can't be considered even remotely accurate.

After his presentation, Swearinger fielded several questions about assault and self-defense.

Todd wrapped up the evening by asking some questions and encouraging the audience to participate. Following that, she screened a 6-minute interview conducted by clinical psychologist David Lisak on the psychology of rape.

Todd then opened the floor to questions and took some time to share information on the various resources the Women’s Center had to offer students and faculty.

Todd said she believes all rapists are serial rapists.

“Every year women give up more freedoms and crimes continue,” Todd said.

I would be curious as to what freedoms women have given up? It is because young women and men are drinking and engaging in sex play more than ever -- exercising their freedoms -- that they have put themselves in harm's way. Especially the men.